Waeco fridge/freezer CFX-40 model

We bought a Waeco freezer box for our trip to Spin. This is the CFX-40 model which has a capacity of 38 liters and will run on 240v and 12v. The unit comes with the inverter supply built in so you only need to buy the freezer.

When powered on 12v you have a choice of 3 setting for the battery monitoring which will shut down the freezer if the battery supply goes to low. This is a good feature as it protects the batteries from under voltage. Another very good feature is its ability to switch from 12v to 240v when you plug your van in. So if you keep it connected to both supplies you won’t have to worry about switching between the two.

The freezer is designed to go down to -21 and you have the ability to set the temperature to what you want. It is a compressor fridge/freezer so unlike the motorhome fridges which work on conduction these freezers will work well in outside temperatures over 30 deg. So if you only want to use it as a fridge you can set it to about 1 deg. However if you wanted a freezer you can drop the temperature to -18 deg.

We found that it does take a while at least 24hours to freeze items at first. But I expect this is normal with most freezers. You are best to pack the freezer out with water bottles or freezer packs as this makes it more efficient to stay frozen.

The unit seems very robust, it has a good solid lid with very strong hinges so hopefully should last a long time. It weighs about 18 kg so not a light item and when full with food will require a two person lift. But it does have excellent side handles for this.

On our trip to Spain was were on board the ferry for 2 nights and I did not want to have this freezer running on the leisure batteries all this time in case it drained the power on them. From reviews this should not be a problem running all this time as the power consumption is very low at 45 Watts and it does have the battery monitoring feature but still I did not want to take the risk. So we packed it full at home with food and water bottles then run it at home so all the contents where frozen. When we arrived in Spain we checked the contents and all was still frozen, so very impressed with its abilities to keep items frozen when switched off for a about 35 hours.

We had the freezer running inside the van for our 2 weeks holiday in Spain. I was at first worried about the noise and waking us up at night with the compressor switching on and off. But thankfully this did not happen. It is a very quiet freezer and you do not notice it running in the background. We were also in the peak of summer with van temperatures reaching 37 deg and the freezer worked wonderfully. All the food stayed frozen and we even started swapping freezer packs over with the van fridge due to the van fridge struggling again to get to fridge temperatures. It also has a top shelf which keeps very cold when set to -18 but not fully freezing, this is a great place to store your butter and milk.

This was not a cheap buy and I can understand people thinking this is overpriced for a van freezer. But after two weeks in Spin I can honestly say this is one of the best accessories I have bought for this van. It outperforms any evaporation fridge fitted to motorhomes and to top all this off it comes with a 2 year warranty.

1 Comment

This is the kind of blog I love to read, and you wrote your experience in a very descriptive manner. It will surely help those who are looking for a Waeco fridge. One point I noticed is that it took a lot of time in cooling and starting, but I guess it is very normal with many of the fridges. Keep sharing your experiences.

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